News
The number of news found: 34.
07/31/2007 INDIA SUPREME COURT BANS BULLFIGHTS!
India's Supreme Court banned on Friday the annual bullfights and bull races held during harvest festivals in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. In past years, both the fighters and the especially muscular wild bulls would often be pepped up with large amounts of country liquor before dashing after each other in the streets to mark Pongal, the harvest festival celebrated every January. But India's Animal Welfare Board successfully petitioned India's highest court to ban the ancient sport of jallikattu, saying it was cruel and not in keeping with what it described as the country's non-violent traditions. Unlike the Spanish version of the sport, the aim is not to kill the bulls but to dominate and tame them, and pluck away bundles of money or other treats tied to their specially sharpened horns. Men beat the animals and throw burning chili powder in their eyes, ears and mouth to enrage them, the Animal Welfare Board said. Fighters and spectators have been gored or trampled to death, and the number of injured fighters has often run into the hundreds.
07/30/2007 REVIEW ORDERED ON LAB TEST LABELS!
The licences given to scientists that allow them to carry out experiments on animals are being mislabelled, according to a High Court ruling. The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) claimed that the licences underplayed the severity of suffering that the animals experienced. The High Court found for BUAV on this ground, but rejected three other claims brought by the campaign group. The Home Office has been granted leave to appeal against the decision. If it is unsuccessful, the government will have to re-examine the way it classifies the severity of lab animal tests. The ruling followed a judicial review that took place earlier this week. t was prompted by a 10-month investigation carried out by BUAV at Cambridge University in 2000-2001. This week, the Home Office announced its official figures on animal tests. A total of three million procedures were carried out on animals in 2006, a rise of 4% on the previous year.
07/29/2007 NIKE SUSPENDS VIC CONTRACT!
Following PETA protests outside Niketown stores and countless calls and emails to the company asking that they cut ties with Michael Vick in light of horrific allegations of his involvement with dogfighting rings, Nike has released the following statement: 'Nike has suspended Michael Vick's contract without pay, and will not sell any more Michael Vick product at Nike-owned retail at this time.' PETA thanks to everyone who wrote to the company about this issue or attended the demonstrations, and thanks to Nike for doing the right thing by ending its association with someone accused of torture. Reebok has also made the decision to stop sales of Michael Vick apparel, stating: 'While we respect the legal process we find the allegations against Mr. Vick too disturbing to ignore, therefore, we have decided to immediately suspend selling Vick NFL product, both at retail and online through the Reebok website.'
07/28/2007 HUMAN SKIN TO REPLACE ANIMAL TESTS!
Stretched taut across the top of a vial, the thin cream-coloured material feels almost like rubber. Barely 1 centimetre in diameter, this is a sample of Episkin - a reconstructed human skin which has been approved for testing if cosmetics are likely to irritate the skin. It is the first complete replacement for animal testing. Although cosmetics and skincare giant L'Oréal has been developing reconstructed skin since the 1980s, the search for animal alternatives became urgent in recent months with the introduction of two pieces of legislation. In December 2006, the European Union introduced REACH, which calls for more than 10,000 chemicals used in cosmetics to be tested for skin irritancy by 2019. At the same time, the EU's cosmetics directive bans the use of animals in such tests from 2009. Estelle Tessonneaud developed Episkin with her colleagues at L'Oréal's labs in Lyon, France. Her team grows the skin layers on collagen, using skin cells called keratinocytes left-over from breast surgery. The team can test the safety of cosmetics by simply smothering the skin in the product.
07/27/2007 MASS GORILLA 'EXECUTION' DISCOVERED IN CONGO!
Three female mountain gorillas were found shot dead on Monday morning in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park. Another three gorillas are missing, and park rangers fear they may have also been killed. The slaughter deeply shocked the rangers and onservationists who work to protect the endangered gorillas in a park that has been ravaged by civil strife for years. Park staff and WildlifeDirect officials stationed in Virunga's Bukima camp said they heard gunshots coming from inside the dense forest around 8 p.m. on Saturday night. One of the dead females was the mother of a three-month-old baby gorilla, while another victim was the mother of a two-year-old animal. The third gorilla killed was pregnant.
07/27/2007 PREGNANT WHALES KILLED!
More than half the whales killed by Japanese whalers in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary, in 2006 were pregnant! Of 505 Antarctic minke whales slaughtered, 262 of them were pregnant females. One of three giant fin whales killed was also pregnant. These findings come from Japanese reports of their most recent 2006-07 whale hunt in Antarctic waters; and were released ahead of the resumption of a Federal Court case the Humane Society International is taking against the Japanese whaling company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd.
07/26/2007 BUAV TAKES THE UK GOVERNMENT TO HIGH COURT OVER PRIMATE EXPERIMENTS!
Claims that the Government misled the public over animal experiments are backed by the eminent scientist father of cabinet minister Ed Balls, it has emerged. Zoologist Professor Michael Balls, an Emeritus Professor at the University of Nottingham, advised the Government when the current legislation governing animal testing was drawn up. He is chairman of the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (Frame), an animal welfare charity. Prof Balls spoke out on Monday as the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) announced it was taking the Government to the High Court in London on Tuesday over the fate of laboratory animals. The judicial review case will seek a declaration that the Government has failed in its duty to ensure animal suffering in Home Office licensed laboratories is kept to a minimum. The judge will be asked to order the Home Office to re-examine its licensing regulations. Its case is supported by video and documentary evidence collected in a 10-month undercover operation at a Cambridge University lab. The BUAV alleges Government assurances about 'strict' regulation of animal experiments are misleading.
07/25/2007 TAIWAN HOPES TO MUZZLE STRAY DOG PROBLEM IN 10 YEARS!
When executives step off subways and dash past gleaming hotels to their offices in Taipei, they may be dogged by a few diseased, homeless animals. Stray dogs are a common sight in poor, less developed cities but Taiwan's modern, bustling capital is also full of them. Official statistics show about 179,460 stray dogs live on the island of 23 million people, down from 666,590 a decade ago. The problem began in the 1980s, when Taiwan saw a boom in pet dogs following economic success. In the 1990s, Taiwan cities and counties would drown or starve dogs, animal rights groups say. Now they are sent to shelters and put down after a week unless adopted. Officials have also launched a campaign to convince owners that their pets are not disposable objects. The number of strays is expected to decline to about 100,000 over the next decade but some international animal rights groups say Taiwan's control methods just won't work.
07/24/2007 SURGE OF DEAD SEABIRDS ALARMS SCIENTISTS!
Hundreds of dead seabirds that washed up along the Southeast coast in past thirty days apparently starved to death, but experts don't know why. The deaths of the birds - similar to gulls and called greater shearwaters - have wildlife officials worried about possible changes in the ocean that could have affected the fish that the birds usually eat. An estimated 1,000 of the dead birds have been found from the Bahamas to Florida and north to the Carolinas, said Craig Watson, a wildlife biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service. About 160 have been found along the South Carolina coast from Hilton Head to Murrells Inlet. The birds, which feed on small fish, nest on islands off southern Africa and then migrate north during the summer to the ocean off Canada. Most of the dead birds are juveniles that were born this year.
07/23/2007 ZOO CHIMPS GRIEVE FOR FIFI!
They share more than 90 per cent of human DNA. And like a family grieving one of its own, Taronga Zoo's troupe of chimps have shown the most human qualities as they mourn the death 60-year-old matriarch, Fifi. For about an hour after the primate passed away on Thursday, the 19 chimpanzees, who share the enclosure, virtually closed ranks, surrounding her body in a poignant gesture of shared heartache. They each had their moment of closure; some patting and sniffing the fallen ape, while others simply sat in silence. A great grandmother, she had shown no sign of illness apart from arthritis and minor age-related ailments. Because of the cold, keepers allowed Fifi to stay inside her enclosure on Thursday and it was only when they entered to give her an afternoon feed of fruit that her body was discovered. The chimps spent the hours leading to her death filing in and out of the enclosure, as if paying their final respects.
07/22/2007 JAPAN AIRLINES TRANSPORTS DOGS TO VIVISECTION LABS!
PETA has learned that Covance, a company with a history of egregious cruelty to animals and the world's largest breeder of dogs for use in experimentation, is using Japan Airlines to transport beagle puppies from New York City to vivisection laboratories in Tokyo. PETA is asking Japan Airlines to follow the lead of Air Canada and other compassionate airlines by refusing to transport dogs and other animals to vivisection laboratories. The journey to Japan can take up to 28 hours. Dogs are crammed into tiny transport cages, may not receive sufficient food or water during the longjourney, and may be forced to sit in their own waste. Cargo holds often lack adequate air conditioning, heating, and ventilation, so animals may endure extreme discomfort from temperature extremes or suffocate from insufficient oxygen.
07/21/2007 FARMER MAY FACE CHARGES OVER 19,000 STARVING SHEEP!
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is, according to this story, deciding whether to prosecute a Central Otago farmer over thousands of starving sheep left to cope in bitterly cold winter conditions. The ministry confirmed it was working with the experienced farmer to improve the state of his flock of about 19,000 'under-fed' sheep. MAF spokeswoman Helen Keyes was cited as saying some were found to be starving after the SPCA investigated following a complaint last week. Conditions in the area in recent weeks have been severe, with snow and sub-zero temperatures. The temperature plunged to -14C in recent days. Ms Keyes was further cited as saying the farmer was now working from a plan for his sheep developed by MAF.
07/20/2007 BRAZILIAN FISHERMEN CAUGHT ON VIDEO KILLING 83 DOLPHINS!
A crew of Brazilian fishermen was captured on video killing 83 dolphins and joking about their illegal haul, Brazil's Ibama environmental protection agency said Tuesday. The video obtained by an Ibama researcher and broadcast by Globo TV showed the fishermen netting the dolphins, which suffocated because they could not surface to breathe. The researcher was contracted by the agency and sent undercover aboard the fishing boat to monitor hauls of other fish. The dolphin kill was filmed while the boat was off the coast of Amapa state, near the point where the Amazon River flows into the Atlantic Ocean.
07/19/2007 NEW STUDY SLAMS AVANDIA SAFETY!
The safety of GlaxoSmithKline's controversial diabetes drug Avandia was attacked in a new analysis by German researchers on Wednesday, dealing a fresh blow to the group's second-biggest product. They found little evidence that Avandia improved the quality or length of diabetics' lives and concluded it could actually worsen complications of the disease, after studying pooled data from 18 past trials involving 8,000 patients. Dr Bernd Richter of Duesseldorf's Heinrich-Heine University, who led the research, questioned whether it was ethical to conduct any further clinical tests with Avandia, since 'less dangerous' alternative treatments were available. Glaxo dismissed his review as misleading and said it strongly disagreed with the conclusions, which were published in the Cochrane Library journal. Avandia, known generically as rosiglitazone, has been under a cloud since May, when top U.S. cardiologist Dr Steven Nissen published a pooled, or meta, analysis of 42 previous trials that showed it increased the risk of heart attack by 43 percent. Prescriptions for Avandia tumbled after that, and analysts slashed future earnings forecast for the medicine, which sold 1.6 billion pounds worldwide in 2006.
07/18/2007 ATLANTA FALCONS QUARTERBACK MICHAEL VICK INDICTED FOR DOGFIGHTING!
Yesterday, a federal grand jury indicted Atlanta Falcons celebrity quarterback Michael Vick and three others on felony dogfighting charges. The indictment follows a three-month investigation of an alleged dogfighting operation uncovered at Vick's property in Surry County, Va. Vick and the three co-defendants are charged with violating federal laws against competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting, and conducting the enterprise across state lines. The Humane Society of the United States assisted in the investigation and care of the dogs taken from the property.
07/17/2007 PAUL MCCARTNEY SAYS: 'VEG WILL SAVE US'!
After stars including Madonna, Genesis and Duran Duran highlighted the problem at Wembley's Live Earth gig, Macca says everyone can do their bit by ditching meat. The former Beatle, 65, said: 'Livestock farming is one of the biggest destroyers of the planet. When you see the Amazon being cut down for hamburger cattle, that's pretty obvious. And it's all done in the name of something that benefits humans, when in fact it's the opposite. It's all about attitudes, no one thinks they're the one who has to change.' And recalling a spat his late wife Linda had with the then-president of the World Wildlife Fund, Prince Philip, he went on: ''She said, 'You're the head of a wildlife organisation, how can you go out shooting birds?' 'Are you vegetarian?' he asked, trying to catch us out. 'Yeah!', we both answered. Shooting birds, that's hypocrisy.''
07/17/2007 BABY PANTHER ADOPTED BY DOG!
A 15-day-old female panther named Milica has been adopted by a Rhodesian Ridgeback after her mother refused to feed her and tried to kill her in the Belgrade zoo. 'The mother panther has killed all her cubs since 1999,' zookeeper Dragan Jovanovic said. 'We believe she has been traumatized by the sound of NATO bombs during airstrikes in the Serbian capital intended to stop former President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999,' he said. Now Milica fights with several newborn puppies over milk from her adopted mother. She also appears to enjoy every bit of attention she gets from her new family
07/16/2007 EURO MP BACKS A BAN ON MONKEY VIVISECTION!
Labour MEP Robert Evans, whose UK base is in Feltham, and three other MEPs started the campaign for a Europe-wide commitment to end experiments on primates. They join 179 Euro MPs from each European country who have signed the Written Declaration, which calls for urgent action to end experiments on apes and wild monkeys. They want the European Parliament to set a timetable to ban the practice as it did for cosmetics testing on animals. The campaign aims to secure the backing of 393 MEPs by September and is being stepped up by Animal Defenders International (ADI) in the run up to the Parliament's plenary session in Strasbourg starting on July 9.
07/15/2007 CHINA SUSPENDS SOME U.S. MEAT IMPORTS!
China has suspended imports of chicken feet, pig ears and other animal products from seven U.S. companies, including the world's largest meat processor, in an apparent attempt to turn the tables on American complaints about tainted products from China. The American meat had contaminants including salmonella, feed additives and veterinary drugs, according to a list posted on the Web site of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine late Friday. The U.S. and other countries have cracked down on Chinese products since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found in April that North American dogs and cats were poisoned by tainted Chinese pet food ingredients. Since then, a growing number of Chinese products have been found to be tainted with potentially toxic chemicals and other adulterants. In recent weeks, Chinese authorities have been prominently announcing their own rejections of imports, including U.S. orange pulp, dried apricots, raisins and health supplements -apparently to show that they are not the only ones with food safety problems.
07/14/2007 GREEN MEP RECEIVES DOUBLE MEDIA ACCOLADE!
Two influential polls have named Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas as a leading opinion former and influential politician. The accolades were made by BBC Wildlife magazine, which named her in their list of the top 50 Conservationists, and New Consumer magazine, which placed her eighth in a list of 100 people who we think have made the biggest contribution to ethical consumption over the last five years – the 'Ethical Heroes'. The BBC magazine poll was topped by Prince Charles, the New Consumer survey by fashion designer Katherine Hammet. Others singled out for praise in the magazines are Anita Roddick, Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Fairtrade Foundation's Harriet Lamb. These are just the latest accolades to be received by Dr Lucas by the news media: she was named Politician of the Year in last month's Observer Ethical awards and a made the top ten in the New Statesman's 'Person of the Year 2006' poll.
07/13/2007 NEW LAW: VETS MUST REPORT ANIMAL ABUSE!
A new Colorado law that went into effect on Sunday requires veterinarians to report any case in which they suspect an animal is being abused or involved in fighting. Diane Balkin, with the Denver District Attorney's office, says thatcruelty is defined by law as any act of mistreatment or neglect. The law does not apply to physical abuse alone, says Dr. Michelle Smith, of the 29th Avenue Animal Hospital at Stapleton. The law is patterned after child abuse laws where a medical doctor is required to report child abuse. Some fear that the law will discourage people from taking their pets to the vet for treatment, but Denver city leaders disagree. Only six other states have passed similar animal abuse prevention laws.The Colorado Veterinary Medical Association has backed the law with overwhelming support.
07/12/2007 WOMEN DEMAND FEMALE PAMPLONA BULL RUN!
Women in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona, world-famous for its ferocious bull-running festival, are demanding their own version complete with cows instead of bulls. A student website, www.estudiln.net, set the ball rolling with its campaign 'Cows want to run' which asks for a separate encierro, as the bull-runs are known, where only women are allowed to take part. Women have been allowed to take part in the San Fermin bull-running for some years but they still represent a tiny minority of the thousands of runners who attempt to dodge 600-kilo bulls along an 800-metre course through the streets of Pamplona. The students say it's only logical that women should have their own bull-run. Organizers of the festival, which runs from July 7-14, have not responded to the suggestion.
07/11/2007 TAIWAN RESTAURANT BLASTED FOR SERVING 'DEAD-AND-ALIVE FISH'!
A Taiwan restaurant has been condemned by the public for serving fish whose body has been fried but its head still moves when the fish is served to diners, a newspaper reported Sunday. The restaurant in Chiayi, central Taiwan, said it sent cooks to China's Sichuan province to learn how to prepare Yin Yang Yu, or dead-and-alive fish, and began to serve the dish in June, the United Daily News said. But far from booming business, the creation has brought the restaurant only trouble, with animal-rights groups and members of the public condemning the restaurant for its cruelty to fish. The restaurant manager, named Wang, defended the dish by saying that another dish known as 'shrimp cooked alive' is even more cruel because restaurant boil shrimp in glass bowls to allow customers to watch the crustaceans being boiled alive.
07/10/2007 MORE THAN 240 GOATS DIE IN CALIFORNIA TRAILER WRECK!
More than 200 goats needlessly suffocated to death in an overturned livestock trailer near San Francisco because police would not let their herder free them, their owner said on Saturday. 'They were screaming, screaming, screaming to get out,' said Terri Oyarzun, owner of Goats R Us, an Orinda, California, company that rents goats for grazing brush that poses fire hazards. 'They died because the police wouldn't let them out of the trailer.' In all 243 goats died on Friday after the four-tier truck trailer transporting them flipped when the truck's driver made a sharp turn on a street in San Rafael, California, a town in Marin County north of San Francisco. Police at the scene were so concerned with controlling traffic and preventing another accident that they disregarded pleas by the goat's herder to free the trapped animals, which could have been corralled away from traffic, Oyarzun said. About 150 goats survived, Oyarzun said.
07/10/2007 LIVE LAMB THROWN ON BARBECZUE BY 17 YEAR OLD!
Police are investigating a horrific incident in a Highland village after a heartless yob threw a live lamb on to a bonfire for fun. Stunned teenagers looked on in horror as a young partygoer flung the tiny sheep into the flames near Cannich. One member of the campfire group at the popular hang-out point for teenagers near the village risked injury to pull the animal from the flames. He then snapped its neck to put the lamb out its misery. The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) has slammed the cruelty of the youth involved. As Northern Constabulary continues its investigation into the incident, one shocked parent alerted the Highland News to expose the crime. The father of one of the group said a crowd of boys and girls had gathered for a drink and a barbecue and were camping overnight on May 27. But the revellers were suddenly stunned by the actions of one teenager, believed to be a 17-year-old, when he threw the lamb on to the fire.
07/09/2007 JEFFREY MASSON VISITS CROATIA!
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, the world-acclaimed writer from New Zealand visited Croatia. The author will sign this book in Algoritam bookshops in: Zagreb, Gajeva 1, July 9 at 5 P.M. and Dubrovnik, Placa 8, July 12 at 7:30 P.M. Besides the book signing, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson will also hold a lecture titled 'The Face on Your Plate: Do Animals Have Feelings?' on July 9, at 6:30 P.M. in the Cultural Informative Centar (KIC), Preradoviceva 5, in Zagreb. This is a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all interested to listen to what this renowned and world-acclaimed writer and psychologist has to say.
07/08/2007 THE WORLD'S LARGEST SNAKE HUNT!
Seven million: that's the estimated annual toll in the world's largest snake harvest, currently taking place on Tonlé Sap in Cambodia - the largest freshwater lake in south-east Asia. 'I don't know of any other reptile that is exploited to this extent,' says Sharon Brooks, a graduate student at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, who described her studies of the hunt this week at the Society for Conservation Biology's meeting in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Tonlé Sap's water snakes were largely undisturbed until about two decades ago, when declining fish catches and demand for meat for local crocodile farms left Tonlé Sap's desperately poor fishermen with little choice but to set their nets for the snakes. The hunt is seasonal, reaching a peak in the monsoon from June to December. About 70 per cent of the snakes caught are rainbow water snakes (Enhydris enhydris). While the total population size is unknown, Brooks believes the current harvest is unsustainable.
07/07/2007 NATIONAL AR GROUP FILES SUIT TO STOP COVANCE!
A national animal rights group is suing Chandler in an attempt to stop a controversial drug-testing facility from coming to town. The Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed suit in Maricopa County Superior Court on Monday. The group has been a leading opponent against global drug-testing company Covance, which has been planning an expansion into Chandler for nearly two years. The company has come under fire from animal rights groups opposed to the use of animals in laboratory testing. The suit claims city staff and City Council members held illegal closed-door meetings with Covance representatives to discuss rezoning land near the Chandler Municipal Airport. It also charges that Chandler violated state and city zoning laws by not providing adequate public notice for a July planning and zoning commission hearing. The suit also claims the city violated its own zoning laws by allowing a large part of the facility to be used for a kennel and veterinarian clinic. The lawsuit claims such a use is not allowed under the current industrial zoning.
07/06/2007 ELEPHANT LEFT TO DIE AS ROMANIA'S ZOOS STRUGLE!
Europe's oldest elephant died after Romanian police set their dogs on it when it refused to enter its winter quarters, a new report has revealed. Bucharest zoo staff originally claimed that Gaya, 48, had died of old age. But a report commissioned by the city council, which owns the zoo, found that keepers had asked local police to set their dogs on the elephant to force it to move from its pen. The scandal emerged six months after Romania's entry into the EU turned the spotlight on the fate of animals in the country's 29 zoos. Animal rights groups had hoped that EU membership, with new laws on minimum cage sizes, would improve the situation. But without the funding to make the changes, zoo managements have been left with animals they can no longer afford to keep, or to re-house. The new report reveals that Gaya panicked, fell, and broke a leg, after being bitten a number of times by the dogs. Eyewitnesses said the female elephant, which weighed four tons, was too heavy to lift and had been left on the ground for two days by zoo staff, who did not know what else to do. According to the report, the animal cried out continuously until it died, probably from stress and respiratory problems. It also revealed that less valuable zoo animals had been killed as food for more expensive reptiles, and noted that no staff member had been fired or faced any criminal charges.
07/05/2007 EVERY SCOTTISH MEP BACKS CALL TO END PRIMATE TESTING!
All Scottish MEPs - Alyn Smith, David Martin, Ian Hudghton, John Purvis, Struan Stevenson, Catherine Stihler and Elspeth Attwooll, have put their signatures to Written Declaration (WD) 40/2007 to put a stop to primate tests in Europe. They join 179 MEPs representing every country in Europe and every political persuasion, who have also signed the declaration. The Written Declaration sponsored for ADI by MEP John Bowis, a former Health Minister in the John Major Government, calls for urgent action to end experiments on apes and wild caught monkeys and for the European Parliament to set a timetable to replace all experiments on primates (as it did previously with cosmetics testing on animals). The campaign which aims to secure the backing of 393 MEP signatures by September is being stepped up by Animal Defenders International (ADI) in the lead up to the Parliament's plenary session in Strasbourg starting on July 9th. This week an ADI report on the use of primates in experiments, translated into six languages, was hand delivered to every MEP who has not yet signed, with more activity planned next week. Over 10,000 monkeys are used in European laboratories each year including approximately 1,000 monkeys that are snatched terrified form the wild. A Europe-wide Survey showed that 80% of respondents considered primate experiments as not acceptable.
07/04/2007 RAMSAY'S PET LAMB SLAUGHTERED 'TURNED VIEWERS INTO VEGETARIANS'!
Animal rights' group PETA has praised Gordon Ramsay for showing scenes of lambs being slaughtered to millions of viewers on his TV show. PETA claims the images of two lambs being stunned with 200 volts of electricity and then being hung up and having their throats cut have turned a number of viewers vegetarian. Viewers could clearly see blood gush from the open wound and then the immediate aftermath as each lamb still twitched - although they were both said to be dead and that was apparently the result of nerves still acting in their bodies. PETA said that a number of people - put off by the slaughter - had called the charity since Tuesday night to request vegetarian starter packs.
07/04/2007 BULL PROTESTERS TARGET EMBASSY!
Animal rights activists descended on the Spanish Embassy in London on Monday to protest against bullfighting. Wearing nothing but body paint and a thong, 12 men and women from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were set to paint their bodies in the flags of the world to show global condemnation of the sport. The protest came ahead of this week's annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.
07/03/2007 FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL FORCED TO ADD SCREENINGS FOR 'YOUR MOMMY KILLS ANIMALS'!
Fantasia Film Festival's Program director Mitch Davis has had to add an additional screening for the highly controversial feature film documentary 'Your Mommy Kills Animals' after advance word of mouth showed that the first screening will be sold out immediately. 'This is a very important film and it's great to have to add screenings before the festival starts,' Davis commented. 'Your Mommy Kills Animals' is an in-depth look at the animal-rights movement, and the FBI's recent declaration calling activists the number-one domestic terrorism threat to the United States. Critics have stated that this film will outcontroversy Michael Moore's Sicko this summer and is a 'must see'.
07/01/2007 CHIMERA EMBRYOS HAVE RIGHT TO LIFE, SAY BISHOPS!
Human-animal hybrid embryos conceived in the laboratory - so-called 'chimeras' - should be regarded as human and their mothers should be allowed to give birth to them, the Roman Catholic Church said. Under draft Government legislation to be debated by Parliament later this year, scientists will be given permission for the first time to create such embryos for research as long as they destroy them within two weeks. But the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, in a submission to the Parliamentary joint committee scrutinising the draft legislation, said that the genetic mothers of 'chimeras' should be able to raise them as their own children if they wished. The bishops said that they did not see why these 'interspecies' embryos should be treated any differently than others.
The number of news found: 34.
